Course 1 - Understanding Urban Agriculture

Course description

Urban agriculture (UA) is being practiced by large numbers of people in both southern and northern cities. Increasingly, governments and civil society organizations are promoting its development to enhance urban food security and health, alleviate poverty and strengthen urban livelihoods, support community building, contribute to urban environmental management and greening, and provide educational and recreational services. This course, developed by Marielle Dubbeling (ETC UA) and Joe Nasr (Ryerson University), will expand the understanding of the main concepts of urban agriculture, its main types and dimensions, its potential impacts, the constraints and opportunities facing it, the stakeholders involved in it, the historical contexts shaping it, and the local, regional and international development trends bearing on it. Based on this analysis, the course will provide some tools and approaches for how UA could be analysed and supported by various urban actors.

Materials provided may not be used for accredited courses within another post-secondary educational programme that offers courses in Western countries or at international level. Readers may however make use of course materials for academic papers and publications, in which they must provide appropriate citation to Ryerson University, ETC Urban Agriculture and RUAF.

Course Objectives and/or Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

Explain the concept of urban agriculture from various perspectives
Describe the basic systems, dimensions, stakeholders and institutions related to UA
Identify and communicate the main benefits, problems, opportunities and constraints related to UA
Place UA in a historical context, and relate it to current trends that may shape its future development
Analyse urban agriculture using a range of tools and approaches, and consider various strategies for intervention so as to support its development
Combine the above elements into a coherent and holistic vision of the possible future of urban agriculture in a given city

Module 1: The Concept of Urban Agriculture

Introduction

Urban agriculture (UA) is being practiced by large numbers of people in both southern and northern cities. Increasingly, governments and civil society organizations are promoting its development to enhance urban food security and health, alleviate poverty and strengthen urban livelihoods, support community building, contribute to urban environmental management and greening, and provide educational and recreational services. This course will expand your understanding of the main concepts in urban agriculture, its main types and dimensions, its potential benefits and risks, the constraints and opportunities facing it, the stakeholders involved in it, the historical contexts shaping it, and the local, regional and international development trends bearing on it. Based on this analysis, the course will provide some tools and approaches for how UA could be analysed and supported by various urban actors.

This introductory module will start by discussing several definitions for urban agriculture. You will be asked to provide and discuss your own and current definition of urban agriculture. The module will then continue to focus on firstly comparing intra- and peri-urban, and secondly urban and rural agriculture. It will also introduce and (graphically) show the presence of urban agriculture worldwide.

Learning objectives

After completing this module, you will be able to:

Provide a definition of urban agriculture.
Discuss the differences, commonalities and complementarities between urban, peri-urban and rural agriculture.
Discuss the presence of urban agriculture worldwide, providing examples from different cities.

Your first definition of urban agriculture

All of you participating in this course have already some idea of what urban agriculture entails. Before we continue to further discuss a common definition of urban agriculture, please write down in one sentence your own current definition (concept) of urban agriculture. Remember that there is no good or bad definition. Your own definition may very well reflect the types and forms of urban agriculture you find in your own city.